Saronno, Italy-based Avaneidi, a startup developing enterprise storage systems, announced on Thursday that it has secured €8M in a Series A funding round by United Ventures.
The Italian company will use the funding to accelerate the development of its Enterprise SSDs (ESSDs) and all-inclusive storage appliances, enhancing performance, security, and energy efficiency
Avaneidi: Redefining the future of enterprise storage
Avaneidi was founded by Dr Rino Micheloni, a seasoned expert with over three decades in the semiconductor industry.
The Italian company develops comprehensive enterprise storage systems based on a rigorous 360° multi-level “security by design” approach, enabling an unprecedented degree of cyber security, protection, and data reliability for enterprise-grade applications.
Explaining about “security by design” approach to Silicon Canals, Dr Rino Micheloni says, “When looking at data security, the standard approach is to use a big “software umbrella” to protect data, let’s say top-down (encryption being one example).”
He continues, “Avaneidi follows the opposite approach, let’s say bottom-up, ensuring that the overall data governance is based on secure hardware (and then, of course, we have full software protection that comes on top of it, including a proprietary Operating System).
Balancing data security and sustainability
Avaneidi’s advancements in storage technology enhance performance, and security, and reduce energy consumption, claims the company.
As a result, it enables electronic devices and data centres to improve their operational efficiency and reduce their carbon footprint, contributing to important sustainable development goals such as clean energy and innovative industry sustainability.
“By leveraging both proprietary “secure” hardware and its proprietary Operating System, Avaneidi’s storage appliances significantly reduce the hardware footprint compared to existing solutions, making the whole product development more sustainable,” explains Micheloni when asked about balancing enhancing data security and promoting sustainability.
Additionally, Micheloni claims that the company’s proprietary Error Correction Code has greatly improved data reliability. As a result, the effort to correct errors (i.e. energy per corrected bit) is significantly reduced. Moreover, the proprietary Operating System is designed to optimise data movement and replication.
“This makes Avaneidi’s Storage Appliance very efficient in terms of overall power consumption. Therefore, Avaneidi’s storage solutions are a great choice when data security/integrity and power consumption are major concerns,” he further adds.
Enterprise Solid State Drives
The company’s Enterprise Solid State Drives (ESSDs) utilise tailor-made chips and advanced algorithms, providing a bespoke solution optimised for performance and cyber security applications.
According to Micheloni, the company’s custom-designed chips and advanced algorithms bring various advantages to enterprise storage solutions compared to off-the-shelf alternatives.
It includes higher security (backdoor-free), lower power consumption (a 25 per cent decrease compared to the competition, resulting in a reduced carbon footprint), and a longer ESSD lifetime (1.9 times longer than the competition, leading to a better Total Cost of Ownership).
Focuses on highly sensitive data governance and security
Currently, the Italian company targets organisations and industries that are highly sensitive to data governance and security, particularly within the rapidly evolving field of AI applications, such as finance, defense, automotive, and healthcare.
“Right now we are collecting requests for deploying our Storage Appliances in different environments, mainly on-premises, to validate our core technology with different usage models and workloads. As of Today, customers can already test Avaneidi’s storage appliance by using our “hands-on demo lab” located at our main facility,” says Micheloni.
The investor
Based in Milan, United Ventures is a venture capital firm that provides the strategic guidance, collaboration, and expertise that fast-growing companies need to scale responsibly while maximising long-term value creation.
UV3’s investment in Avaneidi is through United Ventures III Lombardia, an alternative closed-end investment fund managed by United Ventures SGR SpA under the supervision of Finlombarda S.p.A.
The Lombardia Venture initiative aims to strengthen the sustainable growth and competitiveness of SMEs in Lombardy, promote job creation, and support productive investments.
United Ventures III Lombardia co-invests with the UV III Fund in companies in the region showing strong potential for technological innovation.
“United Ventures invests in technologies that have a tangible positive impact,” states Massimiliano Magrini, managing partner at United Ventures.
“Avaneidi’s vision and mission to enable organisations to make better and more sustainable storage decisions, focusing on governance and data security, align with our investment philosophy. By channeling resources into AI infrastructure like Avaneidi’s, we aim to facilitate the development of technologies that will redefine industries and transform tomorrow’s society,” adds Magrini.
